Gradient Descent on Logistic Regression with Non-Separable Data and Large Step Sizes

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Meng, Si Yi, Orvieto, Antonio, Cao, Daniel Yiming, De Sa, Christopher
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2024
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author Meng, Si Yi
Orvieto, Antonio
Cao, Daniel Yiming
De Sa, Christopher
author_facet Meng, Si Yi
Orvieto, Antonio
Cao, Daniel Yiming
De Sa, Christopher
contents We study gradient descent (GD) dynamics on logistic regression problems with large, constant step sizes. For linearly-separable data, it is known that GD converges to the minimizer with arbitrarily large step sizes, a property which no longer holds when the problem is not separable. In fact, the behaviour can be much more complex -- a sequence of period-doubling bifurcations begins at the critical step size $2/λ$, where $λ$ is the largest eigenvalue of the Hessian at the solution. Using a smaller-than-critical step size guarantees convergence if initialized nearby the solution: but does this suffice globally? In one dimension, we show that a step size less than $1/λ$ suffices for global convergence. However, for all step sizes between $1/λ$ and the critical step size $2/λ$, one can construct a dataset such that GD converges to a stable cycle. In higher dimensions, this is actually possible even for step sizes less than $1/λ$. Our results show that although local convergence is guaranteed for all step sizes less than the critical step size, global convergence is not, and GD may instead converge to a cycle depending on the initialization.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2406_05033
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Gradient Descent on Logistic Regression with Non-Separable Data and Large Step Sizes
Meng, Si Yi
Orvieto, Antonio
Cao, Daniel Yiming
De Sa, Christopher
Machine Learning
Optimization and Control
We study gradient descent (GD) dynamics on logistic regression problems with large, constant step sizes. For linearly-separable data, it is known that GD converges to the minimizer with arbitrarily large step sizes, a property which no longer holds when the problem is not separable. In fact, the behaviour can be much more complex -- a sequence of period-doubling bifurcations begins at the critical step size $2/λ$, where $λ$ is the largest eigenvalue of the Hessian at the solution. Using a smaller-than-critical step size guarantees convergence if initialized nearby the solution: but does this suffice globally? In one dimension, we show that a step size less than $1/λ$ suffices for global convergence. However, for all step sizes between $1/λ$ and the critical step size $2/λ$, one can construct a dataset such that GD converges to a stable cycle. In higher dimensions, this is actually possible even for step sizes less than $1/λ$. Our results show that although local convergence is guaranteed for all step sizes less than the critical step size, global convergence is not, and GD may instead converge to a cycle depending on the initialization.
title Gradient Descent on Logistic Regression with Non-Separable Data and Large Step Sizes
topic Machine Learning
Optimization and Control
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.05033